Real moms share: How I announced my pregnancy

Maria Mora is a freelance writer and single mom fueled by coffee, questionable time management skills, toaster oven waffles and the color orange. She lives in Florida with her two young sons. If you see her on Twitter, tell her to stop p...

When and how do you share the news?

Not sure when to share your baby news or how to do it? We asked real moms to share their pregnancy announcement stories and why they chose to wait or announce right away.

Discovering you're pregnant is an incredible life experience. Many moms enjoy the experience of sharing the exciting news with friends and loved ones. We asked moms to share how they announced their pregnancies — and how long they waited to do it.

Share your news with a photo

"We wanted to do something fun to announce our second pregnancy, so we dressed our daughter up in a 'Big Sister' shirt," says Amy, who is expecting her second this summer. "We took a picture and added some text and sent it to friends and family. Everyone thought it was a fun way to announce!"

Make a playful announcement card

"With the two younger girls we waited until we knew that they were girls and then announced along with their names. With Ike we made an announcement card along the lines of rounding out the basketball team because we had to announce before knowing he was a boy!" says Kimberlee, who recently welcomed her fifth child.

Get creative with a video announcement

"The first time my husband and I found out I was expecting, we knew we wanted to be creative with our announcement. But at 9 weeks, I found out I was carrying twins! A simple phone call was not going to cut it," says Idoia, mom of three girls and a boy. "At the time, my husband was learning to play guitar and taking a lot of videos of himself playing, so when we sent our respective families yet another video, they weren't impressed. A few seconds into the video, I joined him and showed my cards. Our families flipped!"

Let the test do the talking

"My spouse announced it to me," says author Sarah Kovac. "I thought the test was negative and forgot to throw it away. Hubby found it on the bathroom sink and came wandering out looking shocked [and asked] 'Is this real?' I admitted to him that I forgot to throw it away. He looked confused and asked me if I knew it was positive. Nope, sure didn't!"

How long did you wait to share the news?

When you're expecting, there are no hard and fast rules for sharing the news. The right time is the time when you feel comfortable sharing. When we polled moms, we received responses ranging from right away to well into the second trimester.

"First baby? Six weeks. I nearly fainted during my cousin's wedding and had to admit it so my family wouldn't think I was drunk. With the second baby, like 18 weeks because I had just started a new job and needed to keep it on the down-low." — Cindy from North Carolina

"Twelve to 13 weeks both times, because I don't want to 'un-tell' and am somewhat private. Didn't tell Facebook until 20 weeks. The second time (this time, after two miscarriages), I wasn't ready for others to be excited and wanted to wait to tell until I could be." — Ashley from Ohio

"Nine weeks because (and this feels a little silly in hindsight) I was going to BlogHer and didn't think I could hide the puking." — Jennie from Texas.